Frozen Tangles
by Lexmarker
Summary: Things have finally calmed down in Arendelle. Or have they? Anna seems to think there are two troublemakers in Castle Arendelle's walls. And what's with all this... hair!


So this is going to be my first foray into storytelling again, aside from cyborgPunzel.

That being said, no meta needed for this fic, everyone can enjoy.

I don't own anything except for all the toys, posters, dolls, statuetes... (rambles for a bit)... and mugs of Disney characters. But the characters themselves are all Disney's.

Enjoy!

- Lex

* * *

"Kai... are you sure this couldn't have waited till later in the day?" Anna yawned as she tried to tame her bedhead. It wasn't enough that the manservant had to wake her up sooo early in the morning, but the morning after the kingdom's gate opening party? There had to be some law against it.

"I assure you, your highness, the delegates of Corona are very justified in their need of your haste." Kai said in a clipped tone as he quickened his steps.

"Why? What kind of possible royal emergency could they be having? And why are they still in the castle? Didn't all the other dignitaries leave already?" Anna mumbled, spitting out a few more stray hairs that found their way to her mouth in the night.

"Your highness, surely you know that the royal house of Corona is a direct relation to your own? They probably wished to congratulate Her Majesty privately after all the commotion these past few days." Kai said, trying to keep the judgment out of his voice. It wasn't his place, after all, even if he had been charged with hiring the royal tutors that had so _profoundly_ made an influence on Anna.

"We're... ugh... royalty. Aren't we all related down the line somewhere? Blood of Charlemagne and blah blah blah." Anna grunted, tying her hair down in her braids, even though there were still a few stubborn cowlicks.

"Blood of Harald the First, your highness." Kai said, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. "And to answer your first question, I believe the Prince Consort's own words were that it was a... hair emergency..."

Anna almost stopped in her tracks to turn back for her bed when she heard those words. "A **hair** emergency? Wow. I mean, I don't like the whole spoiled royal princess stereotype, but really? My hair is like this and I'm not dragging her royal guard to hack at my split ends." Anna said as they came to the double doors leading to the guest's wing.

"I think that this may rank a few degrees higher, your highness." Kai said cryptically, gently pushing the doors open. Anna felt the urge to argue that no one would have more problems with hair then she did. That little urge died when she saw what lay beyond the entryway.

Hair.

Yards and yards of blond, shining hair.

Hair on the doorknobs.

Hair on the rugs.

Hair on the drawers and candlesticks and...

"I know I leave women speechless, strawberry, but you might hurt your jaw there." a sly voice offered, and Anna was shocked to find that one of the piles of hair spoke to her. Thankfully, it was actually just a man carrying a pile of hair and not some magical talking hair monster. She noticed a man's face peeking from the side of the massive coils of hair.

Kai cleared his throat. "Princess Anna of Arendelle, Prince Eugene." he said, standing up straight for the introduction.

"Oh, sorry. _Princess_ Strawberry. Don't hurt your jaw." the man, this Prince Eugene said, winking salaciously at Anna before turning to the manservant again. "Thanks Koi. Now how about lending me a hand with all of this, hmm?" Kai sputtered for a moment at the prince's audacious lack of decorum, but Kai had worked under Princess Anna for the better part of eighteen years. He bit back his remarks and stooped to collect the yellow locks with Eugene.

Anna had seen a lot of strange things the past week, Olaf being one of the many highlights, but she wasn't exactly prepared for this kind of surreality. She was about to voice one of the endless questions just waiting to burst from her head when she heard a shriek from inside the room where all the hair seemed to be coming from.

"Eugene! Quick! It's happening again!" Anna heard a woman's voice cry out.

The smug expression on the Prince's face was immediately replaced with a look of panic.

"C'mon, Koi! Get that one of the rug! Lift it up! Don't let it touch the door!" He said, scrambling to pick up what looked like arbitrary stretches of hair from the hallway. Anna was confused, but Kai seemed to recognize the severity of the situation and also picked up his pace.

Before Anna could say anything, a flash of golden light filled the hall. She gasped as the hair seemed to glow like a sunbeam in front of her, and even more when the pulse of light raced up and through the staggering amount of hair. Kai and Eugene flinched, raising their respective collection of hair over their heads as the light passed through, and Anna would have thought they looked positively idiotic if it weren't for the sheer strangeness of it all.

Finally the light seemed to fade away, and Anna could see the relief on the faces of the men as they let out deep breaths.

"Well, that was a close one, wasn't it, K...!" Eugene said, but was cut off from mispronouncing Kai's name when they heard a shudder and a whine come from behind them.

Again, Anna had to hold back her questions as both Eugene and Kai turned with horrified gazes to a single, stray lock that was touching the foot of a drawer. The men instantly ducked for cover as soon as they saw the dresser shake one more time, and before Anna could even blink, the furniture groaned and burst into another dazzling show of gold light.

Anna finally understood all the scrambling and fear in Eugene and Kai's face as she saw what that one lock of hair did to the drawer. It first it only jerked and heaved, spilling its shelves on to the floor. Then chaos touched the whole scene as dark, ganrled branches erupted from the wood and speared right up to the ceiling. Anna couldn't help but let out a small cry as tendrils of roots jutted from the feet of the dresser, crawling all the way through and breaking floorboards only to stop inches away from Anna's shoes.

"Sorcery..." Anna whispered, then squeaked and clapped her hand to her mouth as she realized just who she sounded like. Still, all the telltale signs were there, and even though she knew Elsa's magic could be controlled didn't mean she could say the same for this new source of insanity. By the time the drawer finally stopped shaking, a third of the hallway was blocked by an oddly square-trunked oak.

"Okay. You win. This is a bigger hair emergency." Anna said, her brow furrowing as she marched into the guest room to the source of all the follicle madness.

* * *

"Eugene? Is everything alright out there?" Rapunzel called out. It had been a long time since she clung to her hair for comfort thanks to her unexpected pixie cut a few years back. She found that the old habit was extremely easy to pick back up given the circumstances.

She was glad to hear someone tromping into the room, but was surprised that in place of her dashing male consort a petite and angry looking young woman came through the doorway instead.

"Alright, look your highness. Contrary to the impression we might have given yesterday, we don't usually like having magic busting up our castle." Anna said, leveling an accusing finger at Rapunzel. "I don't know how they do things in Corona but you better have an explanation for all... all..." Anna said, trying to find the words but halfway through just sighing and grabbing a lock of hair from off the floor. "... ALL THIS HAIR!" Anna blurted out, shaking the bunch in her hand.

Rapunzel flinched at the tone of Anna's voice, but she knew she would have been in the same position in her own castle. She sighed, wishing she had a better explanation to give the other princess, but went on with her version of the events anyway.

"I'm sorry, I don't know. I just woke and it, I mean, my hair was just _doing_ that." Rapunzel said, running her hand through her tresses. She actually took a second to savor the familiar sensation before remembering that Anna was still there, looking very cross about the damage to her hallway. "The wood thing, I mean." Rapunzel added, and Anna actually took a moment to look around the room.

Sure enough, there were little saplings here and there where a hat rack or a stool used to be, and patches of carpet seemed to fray out wildly in tufts of overgrown wool. Even a little ivory duck statue that Anna remembered being in the room was now an ivory duck statue with a gigantic elephant tusk attached to its posterior. It did little to ease the dread growing in Anna's stomach.

"I would think that I'd remember meeting a girl with fifty feet of magic blond hair at the coronation ball." Anna said, crossing her arms and tilting her hips.

"But you have, I mean, we have met. When they opened up the gates?" Rapunzel said before kicking herself mentally at the sight of Anna's unamused look. "My hair was shorter. And brown. Look, my hair usually isn't like this, okay? Even when it was like this it wasn't like _this_. It's all because of... because of..." Rapunzel sighed, her shoulders dropping as she tried to work past her stress and fear and it was all just so hard and her powers were never this bad before and...

"Because of magic." a third voice floated into the room and both girls turned to face the newcomer, Anna with a smile of relief and Rapunzel with a look of shame.

Elsa stepped into the room, a lock of hair twined between her fingers with Kai, Gerda, and Eugene following after.

She stared at the tresses in her hand, then back to Rapunzel, holding the lock in front of her.

"Princess Rapunzel, I would like to hear an explanation for this as well..." Elsa said calmly, pressing the strands into her palm. "... and I would also like to add to my sister's concerns..." she said, holding the lock up for everyone to see. Blue frost curled and crackled around the golden hair, only to shine gold and melt, dripping on to the carpet. Anna gasped, but Elsa just looked to Rapunzel with a hint of curiosity and... amusement?

"... how are you thawing my ice?"


End file.
